Public Education

Submarines are not known to ply the shallow waters of the Caloosahatchee, preferring to run silent at greater depths. But former crewmen of one such vessel recently found the riverside haunt of the man their sub was named for was a perfect place to drop anchor — sans the boomer though.Those former crewmen of the USS Thomas A. Edison — named for Thomas A. Edison naturally —recently got a glimpse at the inventor's life in Fort Myers when they attended a reunion at the Edison and Ford Winter Estates.

Several students from Lee and Sarasota county schools were among those scored winning entries in the annual Florida History Day contest administered by the Museum of Florida History. This year’s state contest was held at Tallahassee Community College on May 6 with the top student entries from the 32 Florida counties participating. Winners were announced today.

This month marked the successful completion of the TechSpark Immokalee Program's first cohort. The Microsoft-funded program is the first of its kind in Florida and addresses the digital skills gap faced by Immokalee youth in the modern workforce.

Christopher S. Bernier has lead the 9th largest school district in the state since May 2022. Ken Savage is expected to take over as interim superintendent — again.

Registration for Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) is now open for spring programs in Lee, Collier, Hendry and Glades Counties. The free educational program is available to 4-year-olds who reside in Florida, regardless of family income.

Three teachers on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit alleging a new state law restricting titles and pronouns at schools unconstitutionally discriminates against transgender and nonbinary educators.The plaintiffs are Hillsborough County high-school teacher Katie Wood; a Lee County teacher identified as “Jane Doe;” and AV Schwandes, a nonbinary Orange County teacher who was fired by Florida Virtual School in October.

The school board voted 4-1, with Ziegler the only no-vote. Board members say she should step down amid a sexual assault investigation into her husband, Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler.

School grades for the 2022-23 school year were released by the Florida Department of Education on Monday with Collier and Sarasota counties posting the only 'A' grades among Southwest Florida districts.As a part of Florida’s first-in-the-nation transition to using progress monitoring instead of traditional high stakes testing, grades for the 2022-2023 school year serve as a baseline and carry no negative consequences.

A series of proposals aimed at "deregulation" of public schools, a priority of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, could be on a fast track for approval by the Senate after receiving backing from a key committee Tuesday.The Senate Fiscal Policy Committee unanimously approved three wide-ranging bills (SB 7000, SB 7002 and SB 7004) that deal with what Passidomo described as cutting “red tape” on issues such as testing and accountability, financial requirements and personnel decisions.

The authors of some of the nearly 400 books removed from the libraries of Collier County public schools have made their feelings known about these actions.